Trump’s unannounced visit to Iraq || Breaking News, 27th of December, 2018

The Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine approved the introduction of new sanctions against Russia, the press service of the council reports. Additional sanctions apply to individuals and legal entities, TASS reports. “It was decided to support the introduction of sanctions, mainly against legal entities and individuals — Russian companies, businessmen, politicians, parliamentarians and law enforcement officers that actively supported or contributed to the aggressive actions against Ukraine” — the press service of the council announced.

US President Donald Trump unexpectedly visited Iraq, the White House reported on Wednesday night. «President Donald Trump and his wife went to Iraq, late on Christmas night, in order to talk with the troops and their commanders, thank them for their successful service, and to congratulate them on Christmas» — said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. During the visit, Donald Trump announced that Washington had no plans of pulling the troops out of Iraq. Washington can use Iraq as a base for the actions in Syria. According to Donald Trump, if the US see that “something is going on with ISIS that Washington doesn’t like” — the US will have the opportunity to “strike them so quickly and so hard that they won’t know what hit them.”

»The Israeli Air Forces did carry out an attack in the Damascus area» — an Israeli security official said anonymously. According to the source, the Israeli aircraft hit an Iranian warehouse and logistics nodes, which were used to supply Hezbollah with weapons. A Syrian anti-aircraft platform, which fired back at the Israeli planes, was also destroyed. Officially, Israel does not confirm or deny their involvement in an airstrike, RIA NEWS reports while citing »the Associated Press». The airstrike lasted for an hour and a half — it was the longest so far.

»Self-ignition of building materials is considered to be the preliminary cause of the fire at the ‘Ural-kalii ‘ mine in Solikamsk» — the head of the Russian Emergency Ministry Yevgeny Zinichev announced. “We have guesses. It’s too early to talk about them yet, but we believe that the fire started among the construction materials — repair works were under way in the mine at that moment” — RIA NEWS quotes Yevgeny Zinichev when he spoke on »Russia 24» TV channel. On Tuesday, the Solikamsk city court of the Perm region arrested 4 suspects, possibly related to the fire in the mine. As a result of the fire — 9 employees of a contractor firm, working in the mine during that day, died.